KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) announced on Monday that it has decided to keep the policy rate unchanged at 12 per cent, assessing the current real interest rate to be adequately positive on the forward-looking basis to sustain the ongoing macroeconomic stability. The central bank’s policy rate, after being slashed by 1,000bps from 22pc since June 2024 in …
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday directed relevant ministries to collaborate with the private sector in raising awareness about the procurement of the Rs5,000 Ramadan Relief Package through digital wallets for deserving families, state-run Radio Pakistan reported. The move comes after the government launched a Rs20 billion Ramazan relief package earlier this month for four million deserving families — …
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday warned lawmakers in a joint session of parliament that the government’s one-sided way of taking decisions was causing a “grave strain” on the federation. The differences between the PML-N, which heads the ruling coalition, and the PPP have been simmering for months as the key ally has expressed frustration over unfulfilled promises. A …
PESHAWAR: Visiting the Darul Uloom Haqqania a week after it was rocked by a deadly suicide attack, Maulana Fazlur Rehman made a fiery speech denouncing the killing of Muslims and religious scholars as “not jihad, but militancy”. Addressing seminary students at the Akora Khattak institute, the chief of his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) questioned whether playing with …
RAWALPINDI: The United States Central Command (US Centcom) has expressed gratitude to Pakistan for its role in capturing the main suspect behind the deadly 2021 suicide bombing at Kabul Airport in Afghanistan. In a post on its official Urdu-language account on X, US Centcom acknowledged Pakistan’s cooperation in arresting Mohammad Sharifullah, also known as Jafar, an alleged Daesh-Khorasan (ISIS-K) operative. …
LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has approved significant projects aimed at improving the welfare of workers in the province. The chief minister has directed the enforcement of the minimum wage law across the province, ensuring that workers receive at least 37,000 rupees per month. She also called for a comprehensive plan to establish labour colonies throughout Punjab and instructed …
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on Saturday denounced the government’s persistent defiance of the Senate chairman’s production order for incarcerated PTI Senator Ejaz Chaudhry. PTI Central Information Secretary Sheikh Waqqas Akram said the “contemptuous behaviour” exhibited by the government towards the production order issued by the Senate chairman for the PTI senator further undermined Pakistan’s parliamentary system but also brought …
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court is seized with a dispute, wherein a former judicial officer from Sindh in his struggle to be reinstated back to his office is posing a challenge to a decision made by the highest adjudicator in his province — a former chief justice of the Sindh High Court. Former District and Sessions judge Aijaz Ali Khaskheli, who …
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has directed the authorities concerned to strictly adhere to the procedure for placing any citizen on the no-fly list, emphasising that citizens’ names should not be added to the list “arbitrarily”. Justice Babar Sattar declared that placement of a citizen’s name on the Passport Control List (PCL) without tangible evidence to be illegal and …
LAHORE: Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’ recent scheduled visit to Mayo Hospital and her ‘controversial’ remarks to Medical Superintendent Prof Dr Faisal Masood over the complaints of the patients of medicines shortage generated a new controversy when it transpired that the MS had already tendered his resignation following Rs3.5bn pending liabilities of the institute while the health minister and secretary allegedly …